Oct. 29 Terry Francona postgame interview

Q. Terry, you agonized over taking out Napoli. How relieved were you when Santana hit the home run? TERRY FRANCONA: Oh, I thought Carlos swung the bat really well. I still wasn’t pleased that Nap didn’t play, because like the things we talked about before the game, he’s kind of the heart and soul of our team. But he’ll be in there tomorrow. His one at-bat, he took a really good swing that, I think, should help make him feel a little better going into tomorrow.Q. How would you compare Kluber tonight to Game 1? Also, did you think about not using Miller after the Kipnis home run? TERRY FRANCONA: No, no. A win is — I mean, I think you have to respect who you’re playing and what they can do. I thought Kluber was tremendous. I thought he had to work early. He didn’t have his best breaking ball. I thought later in the game he sort of defined it, actually. I think in a perfect world we wanted to keep him around 80. We were fortunate enough to be able to do that. But I think he’s proving over and over just how good he is.Q. Following up on Kluber, you’ve seen a lot of dominant postseason performances in your career. With what he’s done, 0.89 ERA the entire postseason, how does it stack up with some of the best you’ve ever been a part of? TERRY FRANCONA: I knew you were going to say that. I’m not good at doing that. What matters right now is we’re doing this right now, and that’s what’s important to us. That’s fun stuff for you guys to talk about. And I don’t blame you. It’s really cool. What I care about is us finding ways to win, and I know that when he pitches, we feel really good. I mean, he works so hard to be good. It’s …

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